Frosting and Toppings Tips

Read these 35 Frosting and Toppings Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Dessert tips and hundreds of other topics.

Frosting and Toppings Tips
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Place these ingredients except vanilla in a double boiler over rapidly boiling water. Beat them constantly with a hand mixer or wire whisk for seven minutes, until the icing thickens. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and 2/3 cup water to a boil. Continue boiling until syrup reaches 238° on a candy thermometer (soft-ball stage).

Meanwhile, place egg whites in the bowl of a standing mixer with the whisk attachment, and beat on low speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar. Beat on high speed until stiff but not dry; do not overbeat.

With mixer running, add syrup to whites in a stream, beating on high speed until no longer steaming, about 3 minutes. Add butter bit by bit, beating until spreadable, 3 to 5 minutes; beat in vanilla. If icing curdles, don't panic! Just keep beating until smooth.

To make the frosting on your cake glossy, dip a long spatula into hot water and use to lightly smooth the frosting. The hot water will slightly melt the frosting and give it a glossy coat. Be sure to not use too much water or the frosting will run.

When making cooked frostings, a good way to tell if a recipe will work is to look for a stabilizer. These ingredients keep the frosting smooth and prevent premature hardening. They include lemon juice, vinegar, cream of tartar or light corn syrup.

I firmly believe that the amount of filling recipes say to put in between cake layers is just not enough. Some recipes actually say to use 1/2 cup of the frosting - which will just barely coat the cake surface! Make more frosting than you need, and use at least 1 cup for a filling. The cake will be wonderful.

Process chocolate in a food processor, or chop with chef's knife until fine.

In heavy saucepan, bring cream to a boil. Watch carefully - it boils over very quickly! Pour the hot cream into a large mixing bowl. Let cool about 3 minutes. Sprinkle chopped chocolate over the entire surface. Start stirring in the middle, blending the melted chocolate and cream together. Stir steadily until all the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the corn syrup.

Use a stencil or even a paper cutout doily to quickly decorate cakes and cookies. Simply put stencil on baked goods and sift powdered sugar or cocoa powder over. Carefully remove stencil and you'll have a beautiful design.

Here's a fun way to let the kids "paint" their own cookies. Make cookie paint by mixing food coloring with egg yolks. Let the kids paint pictures on the cookies before baking. After baking, the colors will come out bright and glossy. Don't let the children eat any of the egg yolk paint.

To check if the syrup for cooked frostings is at the right stage, use this tip. When the syrup is dropped from a spoon, it will form thick threads. A very thin, hairlike thread will form around the thick threads, and curl up. When this happens, the syrup is ready.

As you beat your cooked frosting while adding the syrup, the volume will increase. When the syrup is completely added, sprinkle in a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar, a pinch of cream of tartar, or a teaspoon of light corn syrup. These stabilizers will keep the icing from becoming gritty as it cools.

For small piping jobs, when you don't want to dig out the pastry bags, use a small zipper top plastic bag. Fill with icing, remove excess air, seal the top and snip off a tiny bit of one corner. You're now ready to pipe away!

When you are using a filling other than frosting, it will stay in between the cake layers better if you form a ring of frosting just inside the edge of the bottom layer. Then fill in this space with the filling, and continue layering and frosting the cake.

A fun cookie project for kids is "Cookie Pizzas". Make large round sugar cookies, then let the kids top their own "pizzas" with various toppings: chocolate chips, tinted coconut, nuts, jelly beans or other candies.

If you make buttercream according to the classic sugar syrup recipe, you may have trouble with the consistency. If the buttercream is too runny, place the bowl in an ice water bath and beat until stiffened. If it's too hard, with a curdled look, wrap a hot, wet towel around the bowl and beat again until smooth.

Spread walnuts on a large baking sheet and roast until lightly browned, about 10-12 minutes. Watch them very carefully. Remove from oven and stir in 3 Tbsp. butter and the salt while the walnuts are hot. Let stand until no longer hot to the touch. Process the walnuts with the 4 Tbsp. butter in a food processor with quick on/off pulses until the nuts are just short of a butter. Use to fill cakes. This comes from Marcel Desaulniers, chef of the Trellis Restaurant in Colonial Williamsburg.

Take good care of the tips that come with your pastry bag and decorating kits. Don't wash them in the dishwasher, and place them back in their containers after cleaning. If you dent them, they just won't work as well.

When you are frosting a layer cake, take some frosting and thin slightly. Use this thinner frosting to put a thin layer on the top and sides of the cake. When the frosting hardens, use the regular consistency frosting to finish the cake. This prevents crumbs from showing through or mixing in the frosting.

Bring sugar and water to a boil in heavy saucepan. Cover and cook for 3 minutes, until the steam has washed down any crystals on the sides of the pan. Uncover and cook to 238 degrees on a candy thermometer. The syrup, when dropped from a spoon, will spin a very thin thread on the end of a thicker thread.

Then, whip egg whites and salt until frothy. Add the syrup in a thin stream, beating constantly. When these ingredients are all combined, add the cream or tartar OR lemon juice, then beat in the vanilla.

To tint coconut, dilute a tiny amount of paste or liquid food color with a few drops of water, place coconut and color mixture in a large heavy plastic food storage bag, close tightly and mix and shake until completely combined.

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